Australia:  Defense Minister Says Joint Missile Defense is Possible

Australia might join a U.S. missile defense shield to protect against potential ballistic missiles attacks, Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill said yesterday.

“We have to accept that in some circumstances (diplomacy) might fail and there is the potential longer term possibility that Australia could be threatened by a ballistic missile, perhaps with a nuclear warhead,” Hill said.  “And that’s why we’ve at least got to start thinking about the issue as to how you would defend yourself in such circumstance and that’s really what we’re foreshadowing,” he added.

A new Australian defense doctrine, Defense Update 2003, also indicated that Australia would investigate joining a missile defense system.

“Our geography does not protect Australia against rogue states armed with (weapons of mass destruction) and long-range missiles,” the paper says (Tom Allard, Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 27).

Hill also would not rule out the possibility of U.S. missiles being positioned in Australia as part of a missile defense system.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said that Australia wanted to look at the possibility even though the joint shield might never materialize.

China, however, warned that the move would spark an arms race and regional instability.

A missile defense shield “counteracts the confidence-building efforts in the region and deepens the instability in the region in terms of security,” said Feng Tie, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Canberra (Rob Taylor, Australian Associated Press, Feb. 27).

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Japan:  Washington Urges Tokyo to Purchase Sea-Base Missile Defense

Washington is urging Japan to buy a sea-based midcourse missile defense system to protect against North Korean missiles, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported today (see GSN, Feb. 26).

Installing the system would require upgrades to two or three of Japan’s four Aegis-destroyers and the effort would cost Tokyo $850 million.

The United States and Japan have been involved in joint research on sea-based midcourse defense technology since 1999 but Washington is now speeding the pace of its missile defense deployment (see GSN, Feb. 14).

A senior U.S. defense official said that Japan must decide soon if it wants to join the developing program (Gaku Shibata, Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 27).

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Taiwan:  Taipei Needs Missile Shield, President Says

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula and Chinese ballistic missile deployment have highlighted Taiwan’s need for a missile defense system, according to Taiwanese President Chen Shui-ban (see GSN, Feb. 13).

“The North Korea missile incident reflects the gravity, importance and urgency of the missile defense system proposed by the U.S. government,” Chen said (see GSN, Feb. 25).  “North Korea test-fired a missile into the Sea of Japan and communist China has deployed missiles along its coasts.  These are problems we must all face seriously,” he added (see GSN, Sept. 10, 2002).

Air Force Lt. Col. Mark Stokes, the Defense Department’s Taiwan desk officer, earlier this month said that Taiwan faces “the most daunting conventional ballistic missile threat in the world.”

Washington has urged Taiwan to bolster its own missile defenses, Reuters reported (Reuters/South China Morning Post, Feb. 25).

China, meanwhile, might be willing to side with the United States more on the North Korean and Iraqi situations in exchange for decreased military equipment sales to Taiwan, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The United Daily News, a Taiwanese paper, reported last week that China had withdrawn missiles that target the island nation and returned them to a base in China’s interior.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it had no information of such a move.  A Pentagon official said China is adding about 75 missiles a year to the arsenal facing Taiwan (Hamish McDonald, Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 26).

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Japan:  Defense Officials Delayed Notifying Cabinet of North Korean Missile Test

Even though Japanese defense agencies knew of North Korea’s anti-ship missile test Monday, they did not inform the Japanese Cabinet until yesterday, according to the Los Angeles Times (see GSN, Feb. 25).

The United States had informed the Japanese Defense Agency several weeks earlier that North Korea might test a missile, according to the Times.  Rival departments within the agency, however, failed to share that information with each other or senior officials.  The result was that the Japanese Cabinet was not informed until several hours after North Korea fired the missile, the Times reported.

Midlevel defense analysts did not believe that the test was significant enough to report to senior officials, said defense spokesman Ichiro Imaizumi.  “They judged it wasn’t of interest to the director or the Cabinet,” Imaizumi said.

Analysts, however, said the lack of information sharing illustrated Japan’s poor emergency response system.

“Japan has a very weak sense of crises,” said Zenji Katagata, president of System Research Center, a crisis management firm.  “They assume North Korea is still crying wolf. ... Anything could happen, and this could have turned into a real catastrophe,” Katagata said. 

One problem is that even with the current crisis over Pyongyang’s resumed nuclear program, Japan has still not developed a defined North Korea policy, analysts said.  Japan also has a cultural tendency to play down unpleasant things, hindering the country’s ability to prepare for danger, Katagata said.

“We have a proverb:  ‘You forget the hotness once it passes your throat,’” Katagata said.  “People have forgotten how hot things were.  In addition, those responsible when lapses occur aren’t really held accountable,” he added (Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 26).

Japan to Consider Own Missile Defense

Meanwhile, Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba suggested yesterday that Japan might need to develop its own ability to prevent missile attacks (see GSN, Nov. 12, 2002). 

Under Japan’s constitution, the country is only allowed a defensive military force and for almost 60 years Japan has been under U.S. protection.

“Until the other side actually starts something we cannot exercise self-defense,” Ishiba said in an interview with the London Times.  “It has been agreed that Japan is the shield and the U.S. is the arrow, but we have to discuss whether this is adequate or not.  Henceforth, this will be discussed in parliament,” he added (Parry/Thompson, London Times, Feb. 26).

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United States:  Court Dismisses TRW Case, Citing Classified Documents

A U.S. District Court in Los Angeles dismissed a lawsuit against a missile defense contractor yesterday after U.S. attorneys said that documents requested by the defendant could threaten national security (see GSN, Jan. 2).

The federal government had in effect replaced the lawsuit’s original plaintiff when the contractor said it would need access to classified documents.

Nina Schwartz, a former senior engineer for defense contractor TRW, initiated the lawsuit against her former employer seven years ago, the Los Angeles Times reported.  Schwartz alleged that TRW falsely claimed that a 1996 missile defense test demonstrated that TRW’s equipment could differentiate enemy warheads from decoys or debris, the Times reported.

The former engineer brought the lawsuit under the False Claims Act, which allows citizens to sue government contractors on Washington’s behalf.  The United States may join the plaintiff at any point in a False Claims Act lawsuit, but U.S. officials declined to do so in 1996.

Schwartz pursued the case on her own, and in November 2002, the court granted TRW an order directing the United States to provide documents that U.S. officials said were classified, the Times reported.  At that point the United States joined the lawsuit and U.S. lawyers, acting as the plaintiff, cited the classified documents and sought to dismiss the case.

Schwartz said she would appeal the ruling and her lawyer, Joseph Barrera, said U.S. officials had colluded with TRW “to cover up their own problems.”

“The whole thing is a travesty,” said Stephen Young, a senior analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, a lobbying group that has been supporting Schwartz.

Schwartz has companion whistle-blower and wrongful-termination lawsuits pending in federal courts, according to Barrera.

“They say it will endanger national security, but I say that if this doesn’t go to trial the national security will be in danger,” Schwartz said.

The company was “gratified” with the ruling, according to a TRW spokeswoman.

“TRW always maintained the case is without merit, but agreed with the government’s position that it could not be tried without the use of classified information,” she said (John O’Dell, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 25).

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U.S. Plans:  Pentagon Seeks to Improve Cruise Missile Defense Training

U.S defense officials are examining new systems to help improve cruise missile defense training, including improved simulations and the use of more realistic targets, Jane’s Defense Weekly reported this week (see GSN, Oct. 4, 2002).

The Pentagon’s Joint Cruise Missile Defense Joint Test and Evaluation program, which ends in mid-2005, is examining two options for improved training:  new cruise missile defense simulations to assess gaps in defenses and a “Remote Operations Center,” which would include more realistic targets that could be deployed at training ranges, Jane’s reported.

The improved simulation capability is being established at Boeing’s Virtual Warfare Center in St. Louis, which will store threat and scenario information, said program Technical Director Geri Lentz.  Program officials are also seeking to establish a network of regional nodes throughout the country where air defense operators can train, according to Jane’s.

The Remote Operations Center is a set of software that will help augment testing range equipment and analyze cruise missile defense exercises, Jane’s reported.  The center will also use the Small Manned Aerial Radar Target Model-1 to simulate cruise missiles during exercises.  The piloted SMART-1 allows for more realism because range safety concerns hamper the use of drones, said U.S. Air Force Col. Bill Holway, director of the project.  The SMART-1, however, can be flown in a manner to both address safety concerns and to simulate cruise missile trajectories when needed, he said.

The Pentagon program plans to use the Remote Operations Center during the Roving Sands 2003 air-defense exercise, scheduled for June at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico (Michael Sirak, Jane’s Defense Weekly, Feb. 26).

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Jordan:  A “Few Hundred” U.S. Troops to Staff Patriot Batteries

The United States will send a “few hundred” troops to Jordan to help operate three Patriot missile interceptor batteries deployed there, Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abul Ragheb said yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 6).

“A few hundred American troops will man the Patriot batteries which are destined to protect Jordanian airspace against any missiles that could be fired over Jordan from any direction,” Ragheb said in an interview obtained by Agence France-Presse.

Jordan received the three Patriot batteries from the United States on Feb. 6 to help improve the country’s defenses in advance of potential military action against Iraq, a diplomat said.  The Jordanian Army will deploy the batteries around the capital Amman and the city of Irbid, about 80 kilometers north of Amman, the diplomat said (Agence France-Presse/Jordan Times, Feb. 25).

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U.S. Plans:  Pentagon Testing Official Says Missile Defense Not Ready

In a report sent to Congress this month, the Pentagon’s top weapons testing official said the national missile defense system that the White House plans to deploy in 2004 “has yet to demonstrate significant operational capability” (see GSN, May 6, 2002).

The Ground-based Midcourse Defense system is still in its early stages and suffers “from a lack of production-representative test articles and test infrastructure limitations,” according to Thomas Christie, the Defense Department’s director of operational test and evaluation.

The report says that the testing limitations are a result of the Missile Defense Agency’s slow and cautious pace.

“The GMD program is taking a slower, more deliberate approach to testing to reduce both testing and program risk,” Christie said.

The report agrees with the Missile Defense Agency’s decision to stop intercept testing until an operational booster is developed, Inside Missile Defense reported.

Christie said the missile defense test bed, being built in Alaska, will answer some but not all questions about the program.

“Currently the planned test bed infrastructure for block 2004 includes hardware and software components that are in active development,” the report says.  “As the test bed matures and capabilities are demonstrated, an inherent defensive capability will develop.  However, it will be very difficult to estimate operational availability or performance in real engagement conditions.  This is a test bed, first and foremost,” the report adds (Thomas Duffy, Inside Missile Defense, Feb. 19).

Testing Waiver Sought

The Pentagon is currently seeking a waiver to exempt the missile defense system from standard testing requirements (see GSN, Feb. 14), a move that has raised concern from lawmakers and experts who recalled Pentagon efforts last year to reduce the information it provides to Congress on missile defense programs (see GSN, Aug. 9, 2002).

“The moves last year were just about reporting requirements.  This is different,” said Philip Coyle, director of operational testing and evaluation for the Defense Department from 1994 to 2001.  “This is about obeying the law.  Without these tests, we may never know whether this system works or not, and if they are done after this system is deployed, we won’t know until we’ve spent $70 billion on a Ground-based Missile Defense system,” he added.

Democratic Senators Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Carl Levin (Mich.) and Jack Reed (R.I.) have voiced their concerns with the proposed waiver.

“I believe that any deployed missile defense system must meet the same requirements and standards that we set for all other fully operational weapons systems.  Indeed, given the potential cost of a failure of missile defense, I believe that, if anything, it should be required to meet more stringent test standards than normally required,” Feinstein wrote in a letter to Rumsfeld Wednesday (Esther Schrader, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 24).

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Japan:  Tokyo to Deploy Missile Detection Satellites

A Japanese newspaper has reported that Japan is set to launch its first pair of intelligence satellites by the end of next month, the Chicago Tribune reported today (see GSN, Nov. 12, 2002).  Japan is scheduled to launch the two spy satellites March 28 and they will provide the country with a missile launch-detection capability, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Chicago Tribune, Feb. 23).  Currently, Japan is dependent on U.S. and French commercial satellites for intelligence information on objects such as North Korean missile launch pads, according to Agence France-Presse.

The first pair of spy satellites will also be equipped with optical sensors able to identify objects one-meter long, AFP reported.  Japan is also scheduled to launch three additional pairs of spy satellites by March 2007 (Agence-France Presse, Feb. 21).

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